Temporary Farewell

By the nature of their profession, streamers had no choice but to live in a constant cycle of immediate action and reaction.

They exposed their daily lives and personal moments to an indefinite mass of people called "viewers," and drew responses from them. In other words, viewers could chuckle at the streamer's offhand jokes, flood the chat with question marks, gloat when the broadcaster suffered in a particular situation, and even spread any careless slip of the tongue to every corner of the internet in an instant.

That was precisely the identity of being a streamer, and the very meaning of their existence.

And for exactly that reason, Harmony's audience—which had now swollen to over ten thousand people—was absolutely losing their minds.

A streamer famous enough to be called a "major corporation" was playing a game where not being talked about online for even a single day felt like thorns growing in the LAN cable. Yet in the middle of all that, she was encountering all sorts of unimaginable, outlandish situations, clinging to life by a thread while being dragged along by her teammate.

But.

In a situation where it was less than strange—it was practically impossible—for viewers not to react dramatically,

a precedent-shattering event had occurred: the streamer had turned her attention away from the broadcast entirely, just trying to stay alive.

Just how unlucky did you have to be to end up partying with a hardcore player?

Just how unlucky did you have to be to stumble into an Uncontrolled Area on top of that?

And just how was Harmony ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still alive?

And what exactly was the identity of this user named Eugene who was dragging her along by the collar?

On top of all that, how on earth could someone move like that even in Hardcore Mode?

All sorts of questions piled up as thickly as the muzzle flashes and gunfire sounds filling the screen over and over again—but the streamer herself was responding to them all with deliberate, casual disregard.

It was no different from pouring a full tank of cola with Mentos dumped in, then sealing the lid completely shut.

It was a situation that could explode at any moment, but fortunately—or unfortunately—there were countless related community sites besides the chat window.

It was only natural that the pressure, finding no escape, would flood toward them like a tidal wave.

There were more than enough streamers who played Dark Zone as their main game, and given the game's nature of ranking among the top worldwide, there were even foreign broadcasters whose average viewer counts approached several tens of thousands.

Given that countless users played the game, it was a regular occurrence in this gaming community for all sorts of unimaginable things to happen—even if not quite the incredible convergence of coincidences that Harmony had encountered that day.

In short, it was far too much to dismiss as a simple gag, but it wasn't quite on the scale of an unprecedented topic that would set the galleries ablaze for days, weeks, or even longer.

Of course, that was assuming Eugene would do nothing further.

Anyway, whether she continued playing the game or not, people were animals who lived in the present. In other words, no matter what happened later, the ten thousand viewers were busy setting the community on fire, as if to vent the frustration they hadn't been able to express.

But put differently, this moment meant that the viewers and the streamer had been perfectly separated—and so, what was that streamer doing right now?

"Wait! We can't go in yet! There are people here! People! People are here───!"

"Hi~…"

"What are you doing? Eugene, wave your hand quickly too! Don't close the door!"

Da-da-da-da-da.

One was running with every ounce of strength she could muster, while the other jogged leisurely even while carrying an MK.48 light machine gun, an ammunition bag, an HK337, and twelve full magazines.

These two figures, so strikingly contrasting in appearance, finally reached the vicinity of Central Park HQ only after the in-game time had well past midnight.

"Haaah, we finally made it…!"

"…Do you really have to lie flat on the ground for your heart to feel at ease?"

Back in the day, when I occasionally went to the department store to buy groceries, there was a rare sight to be seen.

Parents with troubled expressions looking around and urging their children to get up quickly, and kids who had glued themselves to the floor as if they were part of the department store, throwing tantrums to claim the toys they wanted.

At times like that, I'd cross between wondering if I had been like that in my own childhood, and feeling relieved that I wasn't the one in that position.

But why was I witnessing this scene only now?

I had thought of her as a green cat-eared girl who would look cute if she just lay still, but seeing her sprawled on the ground breathing deeply as if she had conquered the world, she looked less like a girl and more like a special forces team that had just finished a mission.

Well, considering what had happened over the past two or three hours, I supposed it was understandable.

It seemed this person had only started playing the game a few hours ago, just like me—and while I could handle it, it had been a continuous string of difficult experiences for her.

Still, lying on the ground where everyone else was walking around was a bit much.

"Ah! Ugh, haaah, what is this?!"

"Time to get up now."

I gently wrapped my tail around her leg and pulled, then, once I was close enough, I grabbed her waist and carefully lifted her up.

Harmony's dazed expression shifted into something quite strange. It was hard to describe in words, but it was roughly close to a look of shock.

When I loosened the grip of the tail wrapped around her waist, she asked in a voice as if she had hypothermia.

"W-wait, that tail! What on earth is that? I wanted to ask before we fought earlier, but how on earth did you do that?!"

"How did I do it? I did it because it was possible."

"No, that's not what I mean…"

In truth, there was no great harm in telling her everything right here, but I didn't feel the need to.

Anyway, we had stayed in one place for too long. The heavily fortified base entrance, surrounded by a massive optical barrier, was certainly a good place for defense, but that didn't mean it was a place to lie down.

So we moved on.

Central Park HQ.

The base's appearance couldn't be said to be fixed, since countless temporary structures and training grounds had been built and dismantled over time—but every single brick of the buildings and every sandbag filled with hardened concrete was exactly as I remembered it.

For this moment, I had returned to the past.

A past I couldn't say I wanted to go back to—no, actually… I wanted to go back so badly that I could ignore Harmony and return to my Alpha-class barracks right now, laughing and chatting with my senior operators… I missed it so much my eyes watered.

Following the path lined with soft, gentle lights, I sat on a bench for a moment before heading to the main building to register on the new operator roster.

Safety had arrived, which meant that the facts I had briefly forgotten during all this were now surfacing like bubbles on water.

She, who had asked me to accompany her saying she had something to say, fumbled with her words.

"…Thank you so much for today. For the party request and everything. I feel like I only got in the way."

"You handled the tasks I gave you well, so you passed, more or less."

Not more, not less. Just enough.

I hadn't expected much in the first place, so I had only given her a role that much, and she had fulfilled it.

Given that there were plenty of people who couldn't even properly fulfill the roles they were given, let alone meet the expectations of those roles, this mint-flavored cat had done enough. That was sufficient.

I wasn't sure how she would interpret my words, but by my standards, it was quite a compliment.

"Ah, I see…"

But she only responded with that short answer.

"I'm a bit mentally exhausted, so I'm going to head in first."

"You've worked hard. I'll take a bit longer to look around before I go…"

"Ah, wait a moment."

At her voice, which suggested she had something to do, I paused as I was about to stand up.

Since we were at it, I might as well adjust the zeroing of the newly acquired HK337 and MK48 while we waited for her to reveal her business. Given the nature of urban combat, the maximum engagement distance was often less than 200 meters, so I set the NGAL target designator to converging zero as well…

As I diligently pressed the sight buttons to adjust the zeroing,

"…Ah, okay. I sent a friend request, so if you don't mind, could you accept it?"

"Accepting isn't a big deal, but it looks like you've gotten a lot of other requests too."

"Ah, haha…that's probably because of me. As I mentioned earlier, I was streaming…"

"Ah."

Then I roughly understood.

I manipulated the device here and there, pushing all friend requests and messages to the far end except for one.

As the accept button was recognized, the IR marking on Harmony's uniform that indicated friendly status blinked green, then began to glow faintly and continuously.

"Eh, how do I turn this off?"

"Probably…"

As I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠swept my gaze away from her, the light automatically turned off.

It seemed the function to prevent friendly fire was thoroughly operational as well. I hadn't expected such fine details to be implemented.

Anyway, that was it.

"So, what's the reason for adding me as a friend?"

"Ah…"

A brief silence.

"Since I do both streaming and Yourspace activities, I think I'll need to consult with you about that part later, Eugene. This kind of thing is a sensitive issue, so…"

Ah.

I roughly understood what she was saying.

I thought about it for a moment, but it was certainly a difficult matter to decide through a few words of conversation right here and now.

I hadn't even settled on my own stance about how I should handle this part…

I nodded briefly, indicating a positive response, and she told me she would contact me as soon as she had time.

It seemed like it was time to part ways.

She bowed with a slight bend of her waist and added in a cheerful voice.

"Then I'll head in, teacher! Thank you for your hard work!"

"Yep, yep."

As one cat-eared girl disappeared like melting snow from that spot, I stood up from where I was.

Vaguely recalling what had been in the old manual, each operator was originally assigned a personal room upon registration, where they could rest and do personal maintenance.

When I joined Icarus, the infrastructure and everything else had been completely destroyed, so at the time we shared the same tent among several people… but that was according to the original doctrine.

Since this was a game, I expected they wouldn't follow that part, and I moved toward operator registration, activated my gear without much trouble, and… headed to my personal room.

Conveniently enough, this place was… the exact same location as the Alpha-class barracks I had used.

"…"

My seniors.

People as precious to me as family, no—actually, my seniors were my second family… would there ever come a day when I could see them again?

The emotions I had been forced to fold up by this sudden encounter began to unfold again, like a snack bag that had been crumpled up and then taken out again.

I didn't miss that terrible world of America, but my seniors, my acquaintances… actually, I missed them so much.

And so, I shed tears—not for the first time, but not for the last either.

There was still a long road ahead.